Baker Brothers' Eggs Benedict

Ingredients

TOM'S SPINACH MUFFINS:

I love eggs Benedict, and my preference is to have it with ham,
but I've often seen it offered florentine style (with spinach)
and felt I might be missing out. Sooooo, I've tweaked the
English muffin to include the spinach. This royal breakfast
can now be enjoyed belt and braces style with the best of both
dishes. Have cake and eat it for breakfast. Surely the best
start to a great day.

30g butter

10g sugar

300ml milk

10g dried yeast (or 20g fresh yeast if you can get it)

½ a nutmeg, grated (1 tsp)

200g fresh spinach, chopped

450g strong white flour

Pinch of sea salt

Cornmeal or semolina for dusting

HENRY'S EGGS BENEDICT:

I have strong memories of cooking this in my first kitchen job
at Tom's café in Nailsworth when I was sixteen. Riding my
moped to work, I would practise in my head how to make it,
knowing that at least forty would be ordered that morning.

4 spinach muffins

1 tsp white wine vinegar

8 eggs

8 thin slices of ham

Pepper

250g butter

2 egg yolks

1 tsp white wine vinegar

Salt

1 lemon, halved

Method

FOR THE MUFFINS:

Weigh the butter and sugar into a pan and melt them. Then
add the milk, yeast and nutmeg. Warm the yeasty milk mix
ever so gently, to tepid, no hotter or you could kill the
yeast. Add the spinach and stir it all in.

Weigh the flour into a mixing bowl with the salt and add
the wet mix. Work the lot into a very wet dough, before
kneading it on a work surface for 15 minutes, or in a mixer
with a dough hook for 10. Either way, mix, knead and
develop the dough until it's soft, smooth and elastic. Cover
the dough and put it back into the mixing bowl and leave
for half an hour to rise.

Start warming a heavy non-stick pan on a low heat. Tip the
very sticky dough out on to a work surface liberally
covered with cornmeal or semolina, then dust the top
quite generously. Gently stretch the dough out,
attempting to get the depth as even as possible, until the
thickness is about 2cm, or thereabouts. Using a round
3-inch (7.5cm) cutter, cut discs from the dough and carefully
place them in the pan to dry fry. A sprinkle of cornmeal
or semolina in the pan helps to stop the muffins from
sticking.

Fry them for 5 or more minutes, before carefully flipping
over to fry through on the other side; a palette knife
is useful for this. Keep an eye and nose out to see that
they don't burn.

FOR THE EGGS BENEDICT:

To make the hollandaise, first melt the butter very gently
in a saucepan. As the butter melts, skim off any
foam that rises to the surface. This can be tossed
through vegetables or incorporated into a mash, so put it
aside for later use.

In another pan, heat some water and place a metal bowl on
top. Add the yolks and vinegar, and whisk in a pinch of salt.
Keep whisking over the heat till the yolks start to
thicken. This is called a sabayon. Reduce the heat and keep
whisking.

Slowly trickle in the butter, whisking all the while. As
the melted butter is whisked into the egg yolk it will
start to thicken like a mayonnaise. Keep adding till all
the butter is mixed in. You should have a fairly thick
yellow sauce. Have a little taste and squeeze in some
lemon juice. This slightly thins the sauce and freshens
the flavour. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.

Bring a large pan of water to a gentle simmer and add the
vinegar. Carefully break in the eggs and poach for 2
minutes, or until the whites are firm but the yolks still
runny. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain off excess
water.

Warm the muffins and break in half. Spread a little butter
if you're feeling naughty. Lay a piece of ham on each
half of the muffin. Place the eggs on the ham and spoon the
hollandaise sauce over the lot. A twist of pepper is
about all that is needed.

Top tips

Always break open a muffin by hand or with a fork. This
increases the surface area, ensuring it absorbs more of the
luscious hollandaise. To make plain muffins, simply omit the
spinach and nutmeg and reduce the flour by 100g.This will make
about 8 muffins.